Coal Can Do That: Energy for the 21st Century

Clean Coal Plants Provide Crucial Baseload Power

New clean coal-fueled power plants are vital to providing baseload generation at a time when reserve margins are dangerously low. U.S. electricity growth is forecast to exceed capacity by two-to-one over the next decade, according to the North American Electric Reliability Council.

Dozens of clean coal plants around the nation are planned or in development, representing the largest buildout in three decades.

These new coal plants would use superior technologies that produce one-fifth the emissions rate of the current fleet, and carbon dioxide rates that are 15 percent lower than the typical plant.

Coal-fueled power plants drive low-cost electricity. For example, states like California and New York – that get only a small percentage of their electricity from coal – pay more than double the rates as states like Missouri, that uses coal for more than 80 percent of its electricity (see following graph).

In Southern Illinois, more than several electric utility cooperatives and agencies have partnered to build the multi-billion dollar Prairie State Energy Campus, a 1,600 megawatt supercritical power plant. Prairie State represents the next generation of clean electricity from coal, delivering low-cost energy to more than 1.7 million families and fueling business growth in the nine Midwestern states.

Prairie State is being developed with 21st century technologies, making it among the cleanest U.S. coal-fueled plants with emission rates that are approximately 80 percent lower than existing U.S. power plants. Even its carbon dioxide emission rate will be approximately 15 percent lower than the typical U.S. coal plant. Click here to read more on the Prairie State Energy Campus.